HOME · MOUNTAINCOW MONTHLY NEWSLETTER (AUGUST 2008)

Scholastic news
If you’re helping your child pack for school, make sure to tuck a stack of personalized stationery into their suitcase to help notes with news from school to reach you at home. To further ensure delivery, include a sheet of Custom Image StationeryStamps with coordinating designs.

For any coed, try our PrintingPress design. We used our Rock Candy stationery, which works for either gender, but you can easily customize to suit your student’s favorite color palette using our Mountaincow Stationery Swatch Book. We created a 5 x7 inch folded card in PrintingPress to allow us to use a large character for the first letter in the name, then a smaller point size for the rest of the name, centered vertically on the first initial. We wrote the name in green using the Ryan font from Fonts & Graphics 3. We printed the design on a flat Powder Blue A7 card. We repeated the design on the A2 folded note card as well and lined both envelopes in Powder Blue. We also included a personalized design for the matching Custom Image StationeryStamps.

For a youngster with traditional tastes, try our PrintingPress Platinum design. We added a polka dotted light blue and white border trimmed in brown to a White A7 card. We added a monogram to the top of the page using the Benjamin Shadow font from Fonts & Graphics for Weddings. We added the student’s full name beneath the monogram using the same font. We repeated the same design on the front of the White 4-bar folded note card. Since the border bleeds to the edge of the card, we used our printer’s borderless printing feature. Paired with Chocolate envelopes lined in Twilight, they are sophisticated way for anyone to say hello. Add a sheet of dotty shadow (periwinkle & brown) Personalized StationeryStamps and you’re sure to see them arriving regularly in your own mailbox.

Our PrintingPress Extreme 4.0 design is perfect for those full of school spirit. First we added a custom border to an A7 card and set the border’s shape to Line (Top). Next we filled the border with a custom pattern featuring stripes in the school’s colors. For tips on creating a striped custom pattern, review the Extreme Tip from the June 2007 issue. Next we added the school’s initials at the top of the card in white using the Ryan font. We added a 3 point outline to the letters to make them pop on the striped border. We set the text vertical alignment for the card to Vertically Justify Text and typed the student’s name at the bottom of the card in black using the Ryan font as well. We repeated a similar design on the front of the White 4-bar folded note card. We added a custom background to the card and filled it with the striped pattern. Next we added the schools’ initials and the student’s name using a floating text box with the Make White Transparent setting turned off so that the background of the text box remains white. We added a custom black and orange border to the text box to make it pop against the striped background. Since the stripes go all the way to the edge of both cards, we used our printer’s borderless printing feature. We used Orange Zest stationery and added matching Custom Image StationeryStamps to complete the look.

PrintingPress sample
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PrintingPress Platinum sample
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PrintingPress Extreme 4.0 sample
(click to enlarge)

Line it up
Almost any formal invitation will include a response card, which often includes a blank line for the recipient to write their name. We recommend that you use several underscore characters (“_”) to type the line, but some fonts do not connect the underscores so you may end up with a line that looks something like this:

M _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

PrintingPress Extreme 4.0 makes it easy to connect the dots. Just double-click on the dotted line and click on the Decrease Horizontal Spacing button in the Text toolbar repeatedly until the underscores connect.

M ______________________

If you want to add a vertical line to your stationery, we recommend that you use a shape object. Choose Shape, Insert Shape in the Design menu to create a new shape. In the Shape details section, set the fill color to white and then set the Shape to Line (Left). Next you can use the controls in the Line details section to set the color and thickness of your line. Click on the Finish button to add the shape to your card, then resize the line using the drag handles.